VOD Rentals For The Cost Of A Theater Visit? Good Luck With That
From the archive: published May 24, 2010, 16 years ago. Details may have changed since.
The Motion Picture Association Of America (MPAA) wants to bring you video on demand and they want to do it before DVD or Blu-ray versions of movies are available.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the major networks; Disney, Fox, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros., and Sony are considering a pitch from Time Warner Cable that would bring rentals to users TV sets well ahead of video rentals.
The cost? somewhere between $20 to $30 per title. For that price the wait for renting videos will fall from around 4 months from the time they leave theaters to just 30 days.
It won’t be the first time such a move is attempted, both Hancock and Cloudy with a Chance Of Meatballs were offered by Sony on Bradvia HDTV’s, while Cloudy came with a free Blu-ray copy of the movie.
While VOD offered at faster release rates may be appealing, the $20 to $30 charge simply doesn’t make sense to me, but then again it’s just me and my wife, perhaps for a family with children the money equation will make a whole lot more sense.